xthedeerlordxELI5: Why are Lemmy users freaking out over threads?
Because companies like Meta embrace, extend and extinguish.
did microsoft even do that succesfully? like i know that was the strategy, and its become a meme in the OS community, but didn't it ever actually work? is everyone using windows server software now, for instance?
No, it never worked. The examples are web browsers, email and java, all of which remain open standards. There's a reason Google doesn't try this shit even though they own a large portion of the email and browser market, because they know it'll just piss people off and bring them in front of a judge for anti-competitive behavior and ultimately do nothing.